It's Decision Time

[FreddieFerric]

The amp is running fine. Listening to it right now this early Saturday morning. I don't know what happened to produce that shut down on the left channel. Obviously the sentry monitor found something it didn't like. On one hand it's comforting to know the amp has this safety feature. On the other not knowing why the amp did shut down makes me wonder if it might happen again.

Sorry about the video quality. I might have made a bad codec choice in processing it. Probably could use a better camera than the Hero 8. Opportunity for a new toy!

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by Charles

Freddie, fantastic video. I am looking forward to the open reel video. I have my amps so that I can reconnect to my 1.25's from my 3500's in less than 10 minutes (really about 5 minutes) per amp.

Speaker connection, balanced input (IC), and power cord from one amp to the other each channel.

I think many don't realize the value of redundancy. It provides piece of mind. All high end gear is unreliable to some extent. I will never sell my 1.25's for this reason. Who knows what might have caused the startup issue? You have excellent redundancy.

I think one of the significant advantages of Mac pre's and integrated's is the built-in DAC. Absolutely, there are better DAC's but it is a fine DAC and a wonderful backup should a failure occur.

You now have a beautiful, gorgeous, spectacular system. The room is beautiful. I honestly can't say I have seen better. The MA8000 sitting behind and above the 1502 is stunning, as is the rest of the gear.

You are 100% correct about the 8-ohm tap.

Best

Charles

Thank you for the kind words Charles. Your advice on the 8 ohm taps has proved to be spot on.

I too like the luxury of redundancy with the MA8000. So far pairing the SS preamp with the tube amp is working out quite well. I'm not sure a lot of people would consider that a normal way to go, but it's working out for me so I'm happy. For now of course.

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by miner

Freddie,
I did not watch the full video. I watch about half - what are you referring to that caused the pucker panic?

Kevin

Sorry Kevin. You needed to go a bit further than half. I try to keep videos under 10 minutes because viewer fatigue comes in when dealing with amateur content. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that my vids even reach the level of amateur.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by FreddieFerric

Thank you for the kind words Charles. Your advice on the 8 ohm taps has proved to be spot on.

I too like the luxury of redundancy with the MA8000. So far pairing the SS preamp with the tube amp is working out quite well. I'm not sure a lot of people would consider that a normal way to go, but it's working out for me so I'm happy. For now of course.

Freddie, I use a SS D1100 for my pre and DAC. I actually would prefer the SS pre over the tube pre. I would think long and hard about replacing your amplification if I were you. I don't know if you accomplished your system by a well thought out plan or sort of stumbled into it, but what you have is close to perfect.

Probably a combination of both (as with almost all of us, Ivan being the exception) and also the perfect gear must become available at the right time. The MA8000/1502 is perfect for your system, including your speakers.

For your next upgrade I would go with the largest Canton. Tube amps are very different than SS. The quality of sound does not change as the tube amp approaches clipping.

Dan D'Agostino's 10% rule with SS amps will never change. That's why the Relentless is called the largest small amp in the world: it is 100% true Class A for the first 99 watts. This covers 99% of the power needed for reasonably efficient speakers. IMO, SS Class A is the absolute best, but there is a huge price to pay.

With a tube amp like the 1502 you get at least 150 beautiful tube watts (the amp will do at least 200 at the 8 ohm tap) of constant quality all the way up to clipping. I believe you could run a Reference 1K with a 1502 easily.

I have been able to turn my XVX up to ridiculous levels with my 3500 (350 plus watts both channels) with no signs of distress whatsoever or change in sonics. In general, SS amps need to loaf along to sound their best, not so with well designed tube amps. That's the magic of tubes, IMO, among other things.

Best

Charles

p.s. Mac makes two stand alone Phono pre's.

[miner]

Your videos are great Freddie. Thanks for the timeline. Hmmm….I suggest sending the pic/video to Chuck Hinton at McIntosh. Usually that would indicate a left channel tube gone/going bad. My new C1100 had a weak tube on the right channel out of the box. Luckily I had spare GL on hand to replace in the controller unit. A quick email to Chuck will help to at least give some peace of mind.

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by miner

Your videos are great Freddie. Thanks for the timeline. Hmmm….I suggest sending the pic/video to Chuck Hinton at McIntosh. Usually that would indicate a left channel tube gone/going bad. My new C1100 had a weak tube on the right channel out of the box. Luckily I had spare GL on hand to replace in the controller unit. A quick email to Chuck will help to at least give some peace of mind.

If you have his contact info you can shoot me a pm and I will email it to him.

It's no big deal. I have the service managers contact info should I need to contact him.

[Stahle]

Keep us posted on what McIntosh says. I had an MC275VI do the same thing one time and I never truly figured out why.

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by Stahle

Keep us posted on what McIntosh says. I had an MC275VI do the same thing one time and I never truly figured out why.

I don't think it's a big deal. The manual indicates the Sentry Monitor is also looking for impedence mis-matches with the amps speaker connections and/or speaker terminals and I think other voltage irregularities. In my view, if a tube were bad, the Sentry Monitor would not cycle off as mine did immediately.

I just finished an incredibly epic session of all of Beethoven's 9 Symphonies and the amp performed flawlessly. Ludwig is a pretty fine gent too, btw.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Freddie, could you give us a little more info on the Beethoven symphonies. I have all 9 symphonies but they are on different discs. Thanks

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by Jack in Wilmington

Freddie, could you give us a little more info on the Beethoven symphonies. I have all 9 symphonies but they are on different discs. Thanks

Jack, I have it on my server. Truthfully, it's been quite a long time ago, so I don't remember where I got it from. FWIW, here is a pic